Duncan Park celebrates 100 years. City Council to spend more than $300,000 on park upgrades.
Duncan Park will celebrate its 100th anniversary this weekend with bike rides, jazz performances and tours of the American Legion headquarters.
The activities are a part of showing what the park offers and celebrating its history. The four-hour event is planned for 2 to 6 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 29.
The park will also soon see some improvement projects begin. Spartanburg City Council approved funds and hiring of contractors for multiple projects at the park at both their Oct. 9 and 23 meetings. Some work will be completed before the end of the year. Plans for the park include enhancements to the trails and youth sports facilities.
Celebrating a century
The Friends of Duncan Park, the city's Parks and Recreation department and PAL: Play. Advocate. Live Well. are holding the celebration, which kicks off with a family bike ride. In addition, Sunday's event will also feature performances by Undercover Jazz, food trucks, a community kickball game and tours of the Duncan Estate and the stadium.
To honor the park's baseball legacy, a Play Ball Mini Clinic will be held at 3:30-5 p.m. Sunday at Duncan Park Stadium. The event, geared toward children ages 5-12, will offer a safe and child-friendly baseball tutorial. Registration is required to participate.
"On Sunday, we hope to have it as a complete family event. We want people to bring out their lawn chairs and blankets and enjoy music at the amphitheater," Parks and Recreation Director Kim Moultrie said. "This is a time to engage. We want to celebrate the rich history of the park but also acknowledge the programs and the partners that use the park now and look forward to what's coming."
Duncan Park improvements will be underway soon
Plans for enhancing Duncan Park include paving 2,300 feet of trail, resurfacing 3,600 feet of existing paved trails and removing invasive plants from 55 acres of the park.
City Council approved hiring Roebuck Landscaping to take on the plant removal at their Oct. 9 meeting. That project is estimated to take about 90 days. Council also approved the hiring of Community First Developers, LLC for the trail enhancements on Monday. The resurfacing is anticipated to be completed in mid-December.
Deputy City Manager Mitch Kennedy said during a presentation on Monday, Oct. 23, that improvements to the youth athletic fields at the park are also planned, and will include enhancements to the playing fields, concessions area and restrooms.
"We would come back before council with the scope of that, as well as a bid to make those improvements," Kennedy said. "Youth athletic field improvements will be finalized in the spring of 2024."
Spartanburg City Council approves $300K of improvement projects
From the 2023-24 city budget, Duncan Park will use about $300,000 in trail and youth athletic improvements and additional funding to remove invasive plants.
Spartanburg City staff will use $230,190 for the trail improvement project and $100,000 for the youth athletic field improvements. The athletic field improvement project will also use $175,000 of private funding.
The invasive plant removal project will be paid for with $79,937.57 from the city and $79,937.57 of funding from a state parks grant.
Samantha Swann covers city news, development and culture in Spartanburg. She is a University of South Carolina Upstate and Greenville Technical College alumna. Contact her at sswann@shj.com or on Instagram at @sam_on_spartanburg.
This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Duncan Park celebrates 100 years. Spartanburg plans park improvements.
